Koban: Conflict and Empire

The Galactic Federation is confronted by the vast and implacable Thandol Empire, which has coveted the former Krall region of space for eons, a region of space now occupied and claimed by the upstart Kobani. Outnumbered, they face an opponent who possesses new and deadly weapons. An enemy that had thousands of years to develop the means to take on the Krall Empire, and now present the supermen with a weapon that turns their greatest genetic asset into their greatest weakness.

Overkill: Orphan's Legacy, Book 1

At 23, Jazen Parker has completed his Legion hitch a hero. But in four months, hell have a price on his head. Worse, hes lost his past, and he cant find his future. Worst of all, hes chosen to search for them on the deadliest planet known to mankind. When Jazen reluctantly hires on to a Trueborn Earthman tycoon's safari to bag a deadly trophy, the reluctant mercenary finds himself shipped out to Downgraded Earthlinke 476, the outpost at the end of the universe known to everyone except its tourism bureau as "Dead End".

Man of War: Rebellion, Book 1

In the year 2280, an alien fleet attacked the Earth. Their weapons were unstoppable, their defenses unbreakable. Our technology was inferior, our militaries overwhelmed. Only one starship escaped before civilization fell. Earth was lost. It was never forgotten. Fifty-two years have passed. A message from home has been received. The time to fight for what is ours has come.

TFS Ingenuity: The Terran Fleet Command Saga, Book 1

It's the year 2277. For 50 years, Earth has received mysterious data transmissions from random locations in deep space. The streams include advanced technology, allowing humans to achieve faster-than-light travel virtually overnight. As we prepare to take our first tentative steps into interstellar space, we know almost nothing about our alien benefactors, and their motivations remain unexplained.

Independence: The Legacy Ship Trilogy, Book 1

Thirty years after the Second Swarm War devastated Earth and its colonies, a powerful, mysterious alien ship has invaded our space. Entire planets are ravaged, whole moons shattered. Any starship sent against it never came home. But Admiral Proctor, a war hero from our last brush with annihilation, is called out of retirement to take the reins of humanity's newest starship. The ISS Independence and her crew, with Admiral Proctor at the helm, will stand as Earth's last defense.

Weapons of War: Rebellion, Book 2

In the year 2280, an alien fleet stole our Earth. For 50 years they hunted us. For 50 years they enslaved us. For 50 years we lived in fear. Nothing lasts forever. They can try to quell us. They can try to break us. They can chase us to the ends of the Earth. They can chase us to the ends of the universe. We've won our first battle. We've earned our first taste of hope. What was theirs will soon be ours. We are the rebellion. Our story continues.

TFS Theseus: The Terran Fleet Command Saga, Book 2

"Welcome to the Pelaran Alliance...." With those simple words, the Guardian spacecraft openly revealed itself to humanity, heralding a new chapter in its 500-year-long mission to cultivate our world. Earth's population must now make its first planet-wide decision - join the most powerful alliance in our galaxy or chart our own course, deciding for ourselves which civilizations are worthy of our trust. Will we be the first world to decline the Pelarans' invitation, or does their offer come with an implied threat?

A Learning Experience, Book 1

When a bunch of interstellar scavengers approach Earth intending to abduct a few dozen humans and sell them into slavery in the darkest, they make the mistake of picking on Steve Stuart and his friends, ex-military veterans all. Unprepared for humans who can actually fight, unaware of the true capabilities of their stolen starships, the scavengers rapidly lose control of the ship - and their lives.

Steel World: Undying Mercenaries, Book 1

In the 20th century Earth sent probes, transmissions, and welcoming messages to the stars. Unfortunately, someone noticed. The Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast Empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn't the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers....

Counterstrike: Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 3

Captain Jackson Wolfe never thought he'd see the end of the Phage War in his lifetime. The enemy was too powerful, too numerous, and utterly determined to exterminate humanity. But the appearance of a new ally in the fight has changed all of that. For the first time since the original incursion, Wolfe thinks that maybe there's a chance to stop their implacable enemy before they have the chance to wipe out any more human planets.

Hard Lessons: A Learning Experience, Book 2

Fifty years after Steve Stuart and his friends captured an alien starship, the Solar Union is a thriving interstellar power while Earth is increasingly backward and falling into barbarism. For two youngsters from Earth, the Solar Union offers the only chance they will ever have to make something of their lives.

Wizard Scout: Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles, Book 3

Richard is only in his junior year at the Academy, but it may well be his last. The war with the bat-like Crosioians is straining the resources of the Intergalactic Empire to the breaking point. Every soldier is needed on the front lines to stave off the Empire's destruction. Not to mention politicians are eyeing the Academy as a financial drain that can no longer be justified. To top things off, teams of spell-wielding magic users have been spotted reconnoitering near the Academy.

Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge

When marine private Oliver Chadwick Gardenier is killed in the marine barrack bombing in Beirut, somebody who might be Saint Peter gives him a choice: Go to heaven, which, while nice, might be a little boring, or return to earth. The Boss has a mission for him, and he's to look for a sign. He's a marine: He'll choose the mission. Unfortunately, the sign he's to look for is "57". Which, given the food services contract in Bethesda Hospital, creates some difficulty. Eventually it appears that God's will is for Chad to join a group called Monster Hunters International.

The Battle of the Void: The Ember War, Book 6

The Xaros drove humanity to the edge of extinction. Now, an immense alien fleet is on the way to Earth to end the human race. Earth's defenses are in shambles. The planet needs time to ready for the next invasion, time it doesn't have. The Xaros are en route to Earth, and it will take a daring mission to buy Earth the chance it needs to survive the next attack. While a fleet of brave men and women prepare to face down the Xaros, the Breitenfeld travels to an ancient world where the key to ultimate victory lies buried beneath the crimes of the enigmatic Malal.

The Human Factor

Captain Jason Burke is a man apart, and not just because he's the only of his kind for thousands of light-years in any direction. The changes to his body and to his genetic code have made him faster, stronger, more able to survive in his dangerous occupation...but they've also ensured that he'll never truly fit in with others of his species. He always assumed he would live and die with his crew and never lay eyes on another human again. He was wrong.

Terms of Enlistment: Frontlines, Book 1

The year is 2108, and the North American Commonwealth is bursting at the seams. For welfare rats like Andrew Grayson, there are only two ways out of the crime-ridden and filthy welfare tenements, where you’re restricted to 2,000 calories of badly flavored soy every day. You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world, or you can join the service. With the colony lottery a pipe dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.

The Black Sheep: A Learning Experience, Book 3

In the wake of Earth's collapse into chaos, Captain Hoshiko Stuart made the mistake of speaking her mind - and was exiled six months from Sol to a naval base in an unexplored and uncontacted sector. Placed in command of a single squadron of starships, she expected nothing but boredom. But when she discovers an alien race threatening to exterminate all other races within the sector, Hoshiko and her squadron are drawn into a war to stop them.

Dead Man's Debt

"We require a different battlefield." Nobody expected the war to last three hours, let alone three years. The star system of Archangel holds the line against invading corporate fleets, but a quarter of its territory is already lost. The navy can't hang on much longer. Faced with this grim truth, Archangel's leaders shift their strategy to diplomacy and espionage. For both arenas, they call upon a reluctant weapon: a frontline grunt named Tanner Malone. These days Tanner doesn't aspire to win the war.

Andrew Pollack says:"Great end of to the sequence. I hope we see more."

Extermination: Daniel Black, Book 3

Gaea's favored children have put her ancient plan to cleanse the Earth of humans into motion, and Kozalin stands high on their list of targets. Uncertain alliances, scheming gods, and an implacable foe will push Daniel to his limits. How far will the wizard from Earth go to protect his family?

Rookie Privateer: Privateer Tales, Book 1

When you are old enough to finally become an Earth Mars citizen, everything should be perfect. Right? Not for Liam Hoffen. He's stuck on a mining asteroid called Colony 40, helping his father work a claim that is never going to pay out. His best friend, Nick James is set for life in James' Rental business and Liam just discovered that the girl he's known forever thinks he's pretty great and now she's leaving for the Mars Naval Academy.

The Empire's Corps

The Galactic Empire is dying and chaos and anarchy are breaking out everywhere. After a disastrous mission against terrorists on Earth itself, Captain Edward Stalker of the Terran Marine Corps makes the mistake of speaking truth to power, telling one of the most powerful men in the Empire a few home truths. As a result, Captain Stalker and his men are unceremoniously exiled to Avalon, a world right on the Rim of the Empire. It should have been an easy posting...

The Siege of Earth: The Ember War, Book 7

Only an ember of humanity survived the first Xaros invasion. Now the Xaros return to deliver the final blow to Earth and her defenders. A moon carrying an armada of Xaros drones unleashes its deadly cargo on the solar system. Fortress Mars stands between the enemy and an ill-defended Earth. While the battle rages over the red planet, the Breitenfeld must launch a desperate mission to Pluto to cut off enemy reinforcements. Earth stands on the brink of ruin, and humanity needs every hero it can find to turn back the tide of destruction.

Star Carrier: Lost Colonies, Book 3

Earth builds her first war fleet! The greatest warships ever constructed in known space rise up one by one, soon dominating our skies. They strike fear into the hearts of every citizen and rebel colonist alike. Captain William Sparhawk, the very man who convinced the secretive Council to build this terrifying fleet, now has doubts about the project. What is their exact mission? How could anyone have built these huge ships so quickly? And, most puzzling of all, what's happening out at the isolated laboratory complex on Phobos, Mars' lopsided moon?

Publisher's Summary

Mankind's first alien contact tears into Earth: Projectiles launched from Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, vaporize whole cities. Under siege, humanity gambles on one desperate counterstrike. In a spacecraft scavenged from scraps and armed with Vietnam-era weapons, foot soldiers like 18-year-old Jason Wander-orphans that no one will miss-must dare man's first interplanetary voyage and invade Ganymede.

They have one chance to attack, one ship to attack with. Their failure is our extinction.

This book is just not put together very well. From the writing style to story to character.

What I liked least was the fact that the main character and his friend are in highschool when the story starts. If I make it out right, 6 months later his friend is an internationally known space pilot who cavalierly takes control of Space Shuttles etc.

Mainly, this is a war story. VERY BADLY WRITTEN WAR STORY.

If you want a good book that is totally the opposite of this writing wise, try either Old Man's War or Armour by Steakley.

The title of this review is really all I wanted to say. This is workmanlike military science ficton. Not exceptional, but well over the minimum "fair average quality which would pass without objection in the trade." Like all military SF, it's really an extended essay on the stuff that matters in life: duty, sacrifice, competition, friendship, the value of life, and the fear of death, all illustrated by stories featuring the things that entertain us all: violence, sex, and good triumphing over evil. Buettner has his own slant on all of the above. Good for him. What more could we ask?

Mostly we could ask for a reader who doesn't sound like an idiot with a sinus infection. It grates. I suspect Adam Epstein is trying too hard to channel the personality of the first-person narrator, who is a fairly emotional high-school drop-out. But that doesn't make him (or any real-life high-school drop-out) an idiot. The POV character certainly doesn't behave like like an idiot, and the other characters don't react to him as if he were one. The effect is dissonant, and becomes more so as the narrator gains in rank and experience.

Still worth listening to. Hence the three stars, but the paper book would be a better choice.

1*=I didn't like it.....
2*=It was OK......
3*=It was good but I will never read it again..........
4*=Maybe I will read it again in the future..............
5*=I will definitely read it again(maybe more than once)

Ok.....Everyman screw-up post-teen goes to war in space after evil aliens bombard Earth -- and he (painfully) becomes a man. It sounds familiar, but this book (and the inspired narrator) give this story a series of clever twists. If you like books like Redshirts (or the discussions surrounding Bun-bun -- the massive future tank-like armored vehicle in Ringo's Aldenata series -- not the rabbit) quick-witted, quick-moving with lots of wry asides. . .this is a winner. How did I miss this? And there are 4 more on Audible !!! It deals with serious issues along the way, and the plot actually picks up more of an edge as it goes -- but for a refreshing and smart book, you will like it. One reviewer (who still gave it 4 stars) wrote they had fun but that the story was a bit simplistic. Each time I started to think it was simple I realized the author was playing on themes and almost clichés that I was supposed to recognize and anticipate. Then we veered off in another direction. I am really looking forward to book 2 in the series. (I have not read this in print at all so I can't really compare, but this is so good on audible....the inflections of the reading are great.) In conclusion, I note that I review about one in 10 books I listen to. I reviewed this, hope it is useful.

this story may be an ok story on its own. I may have been able to overlook the shoddy story build up, and forced main character.

But the voice acting... oh god, the voice acting! the narrator sounds like he has been punched in the nose. and he only has two or three whiny or preppy voice. he may do good for young children's novel, but this book tries to be serious, and that's just not this actor!

I am in full agreement with the other reviews. It's simple, fast paced, sci-fi. Very reminiscent of Starship Troopers in overall plot. The author does take some pains to keep the science plausible (gravity, lightspeed, propulsion, atmosphere.... issues that sometimes get glossed over.)

The narrator is mostly good except for the idiotic voices he comes up with. They're pretty awful.

While this book has its roots in Heinlein's Starship Troopers, it has enough differences to make it both fun and interesting. There are some anachronisms that detract, such as sown on stripes to what amount to space armor. The author uses a lot of cliche phrases but for me these didn't detract. In all an enjoyable read and listen -- the audible performance was excellent.

Buettner uses Heinlen's "Starship Troopers" as a template. While events names, places and the general world have been tweaked, the overall structure is the same. What is different is the quality of writing. Characters are two dimensional, motives are not explored, there is no instance of growth or transfer in the main character. In short, all of the features of a good story are present, yet the substance of a good story is missing. All in all this is a waste of time.